Syngenta hires ex-DuPont veteran as new CEO as China deal looms

Syngenta AG said former DuPont Co. director Erik Fyrwald will take over as chief executive officer to steer the Swiss agrochemical maker through the final stages of its $43 billion takeover by state-owned China National Chemical Corp.

Currently CEO of U.S. chemical distributor Univar Inc., Fyrwald will replace John Ramsay, who has run Syngenta on an interim basis since November after the sudden departure of Mike Mack, the Basel-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. Fyrwald left DuPont after 27 years in 2008 and joined Univar four years ago.

The Syngenta biotechnology facility in North Carolina. (Syngenta photo)

The former head of DuPont’s agrochemical and seeds business will need to negotiate antitrust reviews before Syngenta can fall under the ownership of ChemChina, as the Chinese company is known. A hostile approach from Monsanto Co. of the U.S. last year, the planned merger of Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont, and pressure for a deal from Syngenta shareholders led executives at the Swiss pesticide maker to seek refuge with China, rather than go it alone.

Fyrwald is “a really good choice,” said Mark Garrett, the CEO of Abu Dhabi-owned plastics maker Borealis AG, who worked directly under Fyrwald at DuPont. “He’s been around for a while and knows the agriculture space well.”

Fyrwald’s career between DuPont and Univar includes a spell as CEO of water treatment company Nalco, at a time when Warren Buffett took a stake. The business was later sold to EcoLab Inc. and Fyrwald stayed on to lead that company. Syngenta is aiming to complete its sale to ChemChina by the end of the year and has said the process of getting regulatory approval remains on track.